On this National Nurses Day we offer a heart-felt thank you to all our nurses for your endurance in caring for our residents, and wish you strength and courage for this day. Know that we see you and deeply appreciate your work.
In the spirit of Nurses appreciation week and Nurses day, I offer for today’s reflection the following poem from Irish poet, John O’Donahue, excerpted from his blessing, “For a Nurse.”
A BLESSING FOR HEALTHCARE WORKERS
In this fragile frontier-place, your kindness
Becomes the light that consoles the broken-hearted,
Awakens within desperate storms
That oasis of serenity that calls
The spirit to rise from beneath the weight of pain,
To create a new space in the person's mind
Where they gain distance from their suffering
And begin to see the invitation
To integrate and transform it.
May you embrace the beauty in what you do
And how you stand like a secret angel
Between the bleak despair of illness
And the unquenchable light of spirit
That can turn the darkest destiny towards dawn.
Thank you nurses, and all of you, showing up in your station contributing to the chorus of our care here at HHH. May the blessing of God or all that sustains you, keep you safe, grant you peace and fill you with all that you need, just for today. Amen.
Rev. Joel Eaton, MDiv
Interfaith Chaplain
